Scott's WeblogThe weblog of an IT pro focusing on cloud computing, Kubernetes, Linux, containers, and networking

The Linux Migration: Other Users' Stories, Part 2

This post is part of a series of posts sharing the stories of other users who have decided to migrate to Linux as their primary desktop OS. Each person’s migration (and their accompanying story) is unique; some people have embraced Linux only on their home computer; others are using it at work as well. I believe that sharing this information will help readers who may be considering a migration of their own, and who have questions about whether this is right for them and their particular needs.

For more information about other migrations, see part 1 or part 2 of the series.

This time around we’re sharing the story of Rynardt Spies.

Q: Why did you switch to Linux?

In short, I’ve always been at least a part-time Linux desktop user and a heavy RHEL server user. My main work machine is Windows. However, because of my work with AWS, Docker, etc., I find that being on a Linux machine with all the Linux tools at hand (especially OpenSSL and simple built-in tools like SSH) is invaluable when working in a Linux world. However, I’ve always used Linux Mint, or Ubuntu (basically Debian-derived distributions) for my desktop work, and RHEL/CentOS for server workloads.

Q: Which distribution of Linux did you choose?

At first, I tried a Fedora 25 Cinnamon desktop. I come from a RHEL background, so could never really warm to Ubuntu. Now that desktop ports on RH Fedora seems close to be on par with Ubuntu/Mint, I think the switch back to RHEL from Ubuntu is possible for desktop, at least for me. After a few weeks, I switched from Cinnamon back to GNOME 3, and that’s where I am currently.

Q: What sort of hardware are you using?

I’m using a Lenovo X201 (an old laptop I’ve had laying around for a while). I’ve upgraded the memory to 8GB RAM, and replaced the old spindle with a Samsung 850 PRO 256GB SSD for this Linux trial. I’ll see where this goes from a functionality point of view before spending money on new hardware.

So far, I’ve got just about everything working that I need.

Q: What applications are you using on Linux?

Some of the tools/applications that I regularly use include:

Dropbox

Google Chrome (mainly for Postman, Tweetdeck, and other Chrome-based applications or extensions)

Firefox

Cryptkeeper as a front-end to EncFS (which I use to encrypt/decrypt Dropbox folders, using BoxCryptor on Windows/Android)

KeePass 2.x (I’ve been using this for years for password management and have it set up well across multiple systems)

Skype client (although the Skype web app seems to be better)

LibreOffice

Google Docs

Cisco AnyConnect VPN client

Evolution (for mail and calendar)

Git (of course)

Arduino IDE (for some electronics projects I enjoy)

Docker

Inkscape, MyPaint, Shutter, Krita

KRDC for RDP access (still trying to find a better solution, but this works)

Sublime Text 3

I also play with some of the other tools on the system from time to time, but they aren’t all worth mentioning.

Q: Anything else you’d like others to know?

Although most of the applications run well and the workflow for using the distribution is effortless, there are a few niggles that come up from time to time. However, none of them are show stoppers. One of the issues I have is that the display driver crashes randomly, but those crashes are few and far between.

I started out on Fedora 25 using the Cinnamon desktop, a desktop system which I had used extensively in the past. In fact, I used Cinnamon with Linux Mint 13 for two years as my main work machine without any issues. At first all worked well on this new Fedora build. However, I soon started seeing issues with stability, and there were times when I couldn’t even log in due to the desktop system not responding at all. So in the end I made the decision to switch to GNOME. It’s definitely not as customizable as Cinnamon, but it does work well enough for me to want to stick with it for now.